Greenhouse effect 1
Greenhouse Effect
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Greenhouse effect 2
Abstract
Man-made pollution is the primary cause of global warming due to increased greenhouse gas
emissions in the atmosphere. The industrial revolution that has been happening over the past
decades can be held accountable for the increase in greenhouse gases in the environment.
Technology has developed to provide more convenience and comfort to society, but all this has
taken place at the expense of the environment. Inadequate research and reckless use of natural
resources have been the major contributor to global warming. Researchers have worked to
identify how greenhouse gases cause global warming by depletion of the ozone layer to add to
the information already present to aid sensitization. Sensitization has been done globally, and it
is undisputed that most individuals worldwide are familiar with the term global warming.
However, even with more information about how greenhouses are emitted as a result of activities
humans engage in, people are still lagging in supporting leaders trying to mitigate the situation.
The impact of global warming is affecting all living organisms and disrupting the ecosystem.
The solutions that most countries have enacted to mitigate solutions require collective efforts
from all individuals. Funds need to be provided for researchers to keep identifying new ways to
reduce the emission of gases as technology seeks to develop.
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Humanity faces many threats, but none is greater than climate change. The main
challenge is that humans are the architects of our destruction regarding climate change. The
overall temperature increase affects humans and all living organisms, including animals and
wildlife. The blame only lies on man-made pollution as the primary cause of global warming. In
light of this matter, the scientific community has identified greenhouse emissions as harmful to
the environment (Al yasiri et al, 2022). Additionally, activities that include burning coal and
fossil fuels have been identified as the primary releasers of greenhouse gases, and it is imperative
for ways to reduce pollution to be discussed.
The threat of global warming has always been abstract, just lurking in the distance, but
now it is upon us, and we can see and feel it.
According to NASA, 18 of the 19 warmest years have occurred since 2000. The last five
years have been the hottest since record-keeping began in 1880, and 2016 was recorded
as the hottest. Human interventions have caused a current increase in global temperatures
by 0.20C per decade. The increase in industries and urbanization have led to the increase
in the emission of greenhouse gases. Industries produce a myriad of toxins into the
environment that pollutes it and releases harmful substances that lead to a rise in global
temperatures (NASA).
Individuals are responsible for harming the planet in one way or another as they strive for
convenience and comfort. The smallest activities humans engage in, like transportation or
traveling, leading to the emission of pollutants that cause global warming. The vehicles, planes
and other forms of transportation used by humans involve burning fossil fuels which release
various pollutants, including carbon (Plambeck, 2012). Researchers credit transportation with
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causing 33% of the total pollution, leading to a rise in global temperatures. The electricity that is
utilized by almost all households through the planet and in all industries is produced from
burning fossil fuels.
Deforestation, which involves cutting trees without replacing them, is also a major
artificial cause of global warming. Deforestation of rainforests and forests disrupts the natural
ecosystem that protects and stabilizes the climate. Trees are the primary sources of filtering
carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to be utilized in photosynthesis (Trenberth et al, 2014).
Therefore, with increased deforestation, there is a lack of a primary source to utilize carbon
dioxide in the environment, which further increases and is trapped within the atmosphere to aid
in trapping heat.
Farming is necessary to increase the food supply of the increasing population in the
world. However, an increase in farming means an increase in the use of agricultural fertilizers
necessary to ensure high crop production (Trenberth et al, 2014). These agricultural fertilizers
utilized by farmers have nitric oxide components that allow the trapping of heat necessary for the
growth of crops but which cause a debilitating effect on the environment. Overpopulation is yet
another cause of increased atmospheric pollutants that cause global warming. An increase in
humans in the world means more people are breathing out carbon dioxide, a harmful substance
(Vallis et al, 2015).
Landfills and garbage deposits have also been recently identified as sources of
greenhouse gases. Landfills filled with garbage produce harmful gases such as nitrous oxide after
the breakdown of substances present. Additionally, these landfills have been noted to release so
much heat that some municipalities harness that heat as a source of power for their cities (Ritchie
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et al, 2020). Power plants established mostly in developed countries to increase industrialization
are responsible for causing 44% of global warming emissions (Vallis et al, 2015).
The greenhouse effect occurs due to heat trapped near the Earth's surface. With heat-
trapping gases around the Earth, the planet becomes hotter than it is supposed to be.
The greenhouse effect is mostly caused by the interaction of the sun's energy with
greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and fluorinated
gases in the Earth's atmosphere. Greenhouse gases consist of three or more atoms,
making it possible for these gases to trap heat in the atmosphere and then transfer
it to the surface (Kweku et al, 2018, P8).
Greenhouses have been divided into two types, namely the direct and indirect. The direct
gases comprise ozone, carbon dioxide, and water vapor. These gases have molecules that are
capable of absorbing solar energy directly from the sun at specific wavelengths. On the other
hand, there are indirect gases such as methane which create the greenhouse effect by producing
other greenhouse gases (Branderet al, 2015). An example is a methane which is responsible for
producing tropospheric ozone and carbon dioxide through a photochemical process.
Consequently, these gases produce a greenhouse effect.
Percentages assigned to these specific gases that cause the greenhouse effect are
unspecific. The ranges are wide because assigning specific percentages to these gases is quite
impractical. This is majorly contributed by the fact that these gases overlap in the atmosphere
because they have varying absorption and emission to the atmosphere (Brander et al, 2015).
Additionally, the atmospheric concentration of these gases is determined by the balance between
their sources and the sinks. Sinks are described as the various ways greenhouse gases are
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converted into less harmful chemical compounds or absorbed by water bodies on the Earth's
surface (Brander et al, 2015).
The most abundant greenhouse gases in the atmosphere are water vapor, carbon dioxide,
methane, and ozone. Nitrous oxide, chlorofluorocarbons, and hydrofluorocarbons are also
present in lesser amounts. Water vapor accounts for the largest percentage of the greenhouse
effect, between 36% to 66% in a clear sky and 66 to 85% when clouds are present (Brander et al,
2015). Water vapor lasts in the atmosphere for about nine days, unlike other gases like methane
that last for years and centuries. Water vapor is produced directly from water vapor feedback and
not directly by human activities like other gases. However, in regions with local scales like
irrigation schemes, the water vapor percentage in such areas increases (Brander et al, 2015). The
water vapor feedback occurs due to the increased global temperatures in correspondence to
increased greenhouse gases which increase the water vapor concentration, thus amplifying the
warming.
The role of carbon dioxide in the greenhouse effect begins when CO is oxidized to
carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Carbon dioxide can absorb solar energy at a wavelength of 15
microns. The half-life of the emitted carbon dioxide is estimated to be about a century (Adopted
IPCC, 2014). However, about 20% is estimated to remain in the atmosphere for many thousands
of years. Equally, other greenhouse gases like nitrous oxide have a longer average lifetime than
carbon dioxide with 121 years. Additionally, carbon dioxide oxidation increases radiative
forcing, which leads to a rise in temperature by increasing the net incoming energy (Adopted
IPCC, 2014).
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Methane is an indirect greenhouse gas that produces other gases to be able to produce a
greenhouse effect. As methane is emitted into the atmosphere, it reacts with hydroxyl radical to
produce water vapor and ozone gas that will trap heat in the atmosphere (Brander et al, 2015).
Additionally, methane increases its average lifetime in the atmosphere and thus its overall
radiative effect, which causes more warming. Removing the hydroxyl radical leads to an increase
in the atmosphere's methane (Brander et al, 2015).
Scientists have used the term global warming potential to determine the potential of
greenhouse gas in leading to global warming. Global warming potential depends on the
efficiency of the greenhouse gas molecule and its atmospheric lifetime. Carbon dioxide is used
as the base to compare the global warming potential of other gases and is thus defined as having
a GWP of 1 over all periods (Adopted IPCC, 2014). Therefore if gas has a short lifetime, it will
have a bigger GWP on a 20-year scale than on a 50-year scale. In contrast, a gas with a longer
lifetime than carbon dioxide will have a GWP rise when the timescale is considered.
A 2014 analysis, however, states that although methane's initial impact is about 100
times greater than that of CO2, because of the shorter atmospheric lifetime, after six or
seven decades, the impact of the two gases is about equal, and from then on methane's
relative role continues to decline (Adopted IPCC, 2014).
Fossil fuels are from natural resources such as coal, petroleum and natural gases. Since the
beginning of the industrial revolution, fossil fuels have been adopted widely as fuels and
industrial chemicals globally. These fuels are non-renewable and supply around 80% of the
world's energy. In 2018, The intergovernmental panel on Climate Change (IPCC) identified that
89% of carbon dioxide emissions were due to burning fossil fuels. Coal and oil are the dirtiest of
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the three fuels and are accountable for more emissions being released into the atmosphere than
gas, often referred to as cleaner energy. However, as clean as gas is, it still accounts for a fifth of
the world's emissions.
According to IPCC, there is a need to half the amount of fossil fuels in the next 11 years to limit
global warming to 1.50C above the pre-industrial levels.
. According to United Nations, the ocean has absorbed over 90% of the emissions
produced to the atmosphere, and this has caused increased heat temperature of the ocean that has
led to a series of cascading events. These events include ocean acidification, ice melting, and
high sea levels. The lasting impact of these events affects marine biodiversity, directly impacting
the lives and livelihood of 680 million people in the coastal areas and 60 million people working
in the aquaculture industries (Lefvre, 2016). United Nations statistics further show that nearly
half of the world that depends on fish as a source of protein is affected.
Drilling of these fossil fuels from the ground aid in the disruption of the landscapes and
natural ecosystem. Companies that engage in these activities lease large areas, including forests,
which can disrupt the habitat of the wildlife that habit these areas. The blasted areas are left open
and unattended after the fuel is extracted, and these areas can be dangerous to those living within
those areas (Bamberger et al, 2015. Additionally, these fuels emit harmful gases even before
being burnt while still in their active forms. These gases are inhaled by employees who work in
these mines during processing and transportation, which can cause serious health impacts
(Rossati, 2017).
The most unfortunate thing about climate change is that the damage is already done, and
we can only mitigate the situation to lessen the burden of the consequences. Engineers have
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established ways to use solar and wind as a source of energy to create electricity. Countries like
Germany have days when 80% of their electricity is supplied via solar panels. Most countries
must strive to convert to the use of solar and wind despite the backlash from fossil fuel industries
that want to benefit from the profit of selling (Edenhofer, 2015). Counties should establish
restrictions on lumbering activities to ensure that the activities are controlled and also establish
initiatives to further the growth of trees. Power plants and other industries that use fossil fuel in
large amounts are currently establishing ways to redirect the carbon dioxide emissions into the
ground or turn them into valuable products like gasoline. These countries should develop more
technology and fund more research to help these efforts (Edenhofer, 2015).
Individuals need to be sensitized to ways of reducing their carbon footprint. There is a
need for them to understand the importance of investing in electrical cars. Encourage individuals
to use energy-efficient appliances and fewer plastic products (Dowling, 2013). There is also a
need to invest in biodiesel, a non-fossil fuel that can be used in place of diesel fuel. Biodiesel is
made from natural oil or fat chemically combined with an alcohol such as methanol. This fuel
does not cause the emission of harmful gases that deplete the ozone layer, thus leading to global
warming (Edenhofer, 2015). Strategies to control land use are mostly in areas like cities that are
responsible for over 80 % of global warming-induced emissions. Most cities have incorporated
inspection and continence programs to ensure that cars emitting more gases are repaired before
being allowed on roads.
The world is not a commodity or a source of revenue; it is a common good we must all be
responsible for protecting. Artificial pollutants are the main contributors to global warming, and
it is only right for humanity to step up and do what is necessary. All stakeholders contributing to
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the economy need to be inclined to offer money to contribute to strategies that can be used to
fight climate change. Additionally, all humans need to wake up and stop being disinclined to
make changes in their everyday lives to combat climate change. The climatic state is unpleasant
and catastrophic, and it will take everyone to mitigate the situation.
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